


Always Read the Label

by Callaeidae3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Gen, Heavy Angst, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Overdosing, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Sick Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 10:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16659247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: BTHB: Overdose. Keith accidently takes one too many doses of painkillers.





	Always Read the Label

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @cha-lii and @chestnutcats :) You can find the bingo card I'm writing this from on my Tumblr @callaeidae3!

The wound on his shoulder definitely aches less thanks to the painkillers, but…they’re not meant to be making him feel this woozy, right?

Keith had initially just put it down to the fact that the second dose must’ve finally been effective. Before, Shiro had given him some pain relief pills after finishing bandaging his shoulder but it had barely done anything except reduce the pain from a sharp stabbing to an unbearable ache, so he’d gone to ask Coran for some more.

That, as it seems, turned out to be a mistake.

Nausea swirls in his belly. Keith leans heavily against the wall and doubles over, vomiting. The pain in his shoulder returns in full.

“Shiro…”

His chest strains to get enough blood flowing to his head. He stumbles past the sick on the floor, dizzy, his vision being weird and legs not willing to hold him up for much longer. Keith tries to push past the stiffness and sore muscles and the ache of bruises he sustained in the Trials...

He doesn’t make it out the door.

 

 

A couple of hours into the meeting, Shiro’s skin prickles. He scratches the back of his neck, irritated, but it doesn’t go away. He grimaces and tries to bear it.

The headache comes next, like a wall of brain fog. It’s hard to concentrate on what Kolivan is saying with the pounding in his head. It’s almost as though someone’s knocking. He frowns, tells himself that patience yields focus and that he can endure it, and turns his attention back on Koli –

Black.

Shiro’s stomach churns. _Black, what is it?_

The prickling of his skin and the headache vanish. The knocking stops as well.

Dread. Black. Anxiousness.

Red.

Shiro’s eyes widen. “Oh no…”

The Blade Leader stops mid-sentence, waiting for him to elaborate. He doesn’t.

There isn’t time for that.

He takes off at a sprint. The automatic doors don’t open fast enough. The corners of the hallways don’t come quick enough. He doesn’t reach Keith quick enough.

Two minutes before he gets there, Red roars. Black’s calm is disturbed, and like wind tearing through clouds she urges him to run faster. He can’t, but he can use his jetpack to propel himself around the corners a bit faster.

The doors to Keith’s bedroom are open. A limp hand lies on the floor outside the door.

“Keith!”

His skin’s off-colour. He’s lying face down, not breathing. There’s the acrid stench of vomit drifting out from around inside the room and –

He’s not breathing.

He’s _not breathing._

Shiro gently rolls him onto his back and drags him by the sweaty armpits away from the reeking vomit.

 Keith’s skin is all clammy and pale. He doesn’t respond to Shiro’s calling his name or tapping him hard on the collarbone and it soon becomes clear why.

He doesn’t have a pulse.

By the time Kolivan and Allura show up, Shiro’s on his knees doing compressions. He’s got Keith’s head tilted back to open up his airways, but it’s of no use if his heart isn’t beating.

“Coran,” he says, not breaking rhythm. “Get Coran.”

Of all times to have _Stayin’ Alive_ stuck in his head, this is the absolute worst.

Pidge, Lance and Hunk arrive as Shiro’s giving Keith air. There’s a startled exclamation from Pidge and terrified silence from the others. Heels and squeaky boots are running in the opposite direction.

“C’mon, Keith,” Shiro murmurs as he starts the next round of compressions. “Breathe.”

Red’s not even his Lion and Shiro can feel her desperation growing fiercer. She’s willing to break down all the walls of the Castleship if it saves Keith’s life. Thankfully she knows it won’t and so doesn’t destroy anything.

 _She’s trusting me,_ he realises. Another couple of breaths. _I won’t let her down._

Flow. Space. Time.

Shiro keeps pressing the heel of his hand into Keith’s chest.

Flow. Space.

Keith’s running out of time.

Flow.

_Black, I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me._

Flow.

_Of what?_

Energy.

Shiro’s heart skips a beat. Without even thinking about it, his arm powers on, not hot enough to burn but warm enough for an electrical current to flow. At first he thinks Black means him to use it as a defibrillator but then an image comes to mind of distorted energy flow correcting itself, stabilising, realigning –

Keith jerks to life beneath his hand.  

Red’s relief is instantaneous. Black is proud. Shiro is shaking slightly with a fright he hasn’t yet come to realise, but that doesn’t matter right now. The others cheer. All that matters is Keith’s alive.

With Shiro’s hand still glowing and hovering above Keith’s chest, it doesn’t take long for his breaths to even out and his pulse – although weak – to steady. 

Coran and Allura return with various medical supplies, and within the next couple of minutes Keith’s got an oxygen mask over his face and an injection of painkiller overdose antidote running through his veins.

Well. Response.

Shiro grunts. The adrenaline’s beginning to wear off now. If he was struggling to concentrate on Kolivan’s words earlier, there’s no way he’s going to be able to concentrate if they decide to go back into the meeting straight after this. 

That’s twice in one day that his younger brother nearly died. He actually kind of did on that second time.

Alive.

 

Alive.

He’s not all there when he wakes. It’s disorientating, confusing. He thinks he hears Shiro’s voice right beside him, but then he drifts and it’s like he’s sinking underwater.

_Shiro…_

A hand grips his. Keith squeezes back, albeit weakly.

“You’re going to be okay, Keith. You’re probably not going to feel so good for a little while, but you’re going to be okay, now.”

Keith groans in response. He tries to open his eyes but the effort unsettles his stomach so he decides that it’s best not to.

“Just rest. Don’t push yourself.”

He feels the extent of Red’s worry wash over him and that’s enough to convince him not to be stubborn. It must’ve been serious, whatever happened, but thankfully he doesn’t seem to be expected to remember it now.

With his body needing to restore itself, Keith sleeps.

 

 


End file.
